mind have been kept at a distance. The author is not about entering a crusade against butter and sugar: he may not indeed admire either the one or the other abstractedly; but his principal objection to them is, that they stimulate the sense of taste, and induce children to eat more than is necessary-more than they otherwise would. Left to itself, a child knows no other limit to its devouring propensity, than the absolute incapacity of receiving more; and the consequence of this state is perceived in the oppressed breathing which follows the principal meal. The very opposite of this state should be the criterion of having taken enough; the child should never know from its sensations after dinner, that it has a stomach and should he be peevish, fretful, languid, and irritable, a state of morbid excitation is produced, which cannot but be extensively prejudicial. On the same principle, all hashed meats, sauces, &c. are to be avoided; and no kind of stimulus, but that of health, should be given. This is the only way of securing strength and comfort of body, peace of mind, activity and energy of intelligence, as well as good temper; boons surely of sufficient value to induce parents not to neglect the physical education of this

sense.

148

CHAP. XIII.

EXERCISE OF THE SENSES CONTINUED OF THE SENSE OF SMELL ITS OBJECT-ITS ORGAN, THE NOSEITS USES INTENDED AS A SAFEGUARD TO THE RESPIRATORY FUNCTION-POSSESSED IN VERY DIFFERENT DEGREES BY MEN AND ANIMALS-CONDUCES LITTLE TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF INTELLIGENCE IS MORE PERFECT IN SAVAGE THAN IN CIVILIZED LIFE—IN A GREAT MEASURE VOLUNTARY-IS SUSCEPTIBLE OF EDUCATION, AND CAPABLE OF CONSIDERABLE ASSOCIATION-ITS TOO ACUTE SENSIBILITY—ITS ANTIPATHIES PRECAUTIONS REQUIRED BY THE EXERCISE OF THIS SENSE-PERFUMES TOBACCO-SNUFF -THEIR AGENCY ON THE BRAIN AND THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS.

III. Of the Sense of Smelling.

As in the sense we have just contemplated, savours are its object, so in that now submitted to our notice, their place is occupied by odours. These are emitted during certain states of the odoriferous body, varying according to its individual peculiarities; and often arising from different substances, in circumstances precisely opposed to each other; yet all agreeing in this one particular, that they are conveyed from the odorant body, and diffused through the medium

of the atmosphere; and that they are powerful in inverse proportion to the squares of their distance from it; thus forming a means of calculating that distance, when we are previously acquainted with the nature of the plant or animal. This mode of calculation is however rendered altoge ther uncertain, by the varying power of giving off their peculiar odours, according to the state of their health, age, &c; and by the different capacities of the atmosphere to receive and to convey them, according to a certain law unknown to man, although the fact be familiar, especially to sportsmen.

of

The nose, and the structure depending upon and connected with it, form together the organ this sense. The mode by which its impressions are received, is through the medium of inspiration; and thus we are brought acquainted with a variety of qualities of bodies, which we know from experience to be connected with certain states of their power of giving off smells. And although it would be difficult to catalogue the almost endless variety of odours, yet they may be all classed under the generic terms of agreeable and disagreeable. On these two qualities will hinge the principal office of this sense; viz. that of performing for respiration, what the tongue does for digestion; and of distinguishing the dif ferent qualities of the atmosphere-freely inhaling the purer breeze, and rejecting it when loaded with noxious particles. Thus its office is analo

gous with that of taste; and it will be remarked, that when exposed to disagreeable smells, the chest seems to perform inspiration with regret and difficulty. It is also an adjuvant to the former sense, warning us of certain injurious states of the food presented to us, and thus influencing the digestive function by the nausea and disgust which it produces.

Animals possess the sense of smell in very different degrees; in some much more perfectly, and in others much less so than in man. It is, however, in its influence principally corporeal, and contributes very little to the advancement of intelligence, except in a small number of instances, as, for example, in the pursuits of the chemist, to whom it is often valuable in directing his researches, and conveying to him some notice of the good or baneful properties of bodies submitted to his investigation; and occasionally leading to a train of analysis, which has conducted him in the pathway of brilliant discovery.

The sense of smell is not very early developed; and, probably, nature, in her wisdom, has prudently ordained, that from its vicinity to, and immediate connexion with the cerebral viscus; and in consequence of the easy excitement of that organ, through the medium of stimuli applied to the nose, it should not arrive at its state of maturity, or even considerable activity, during the period of the brain's greatest tendency to irritation; a hint worthy of reception, in order to

avoid in the years of infancy, and early childhood, powerful impressions upon this sense. It has also been remarked, that the sense of smell exists in a greater degree of perfection in savage, than in civilized life: a fact probably arising out of the circumstance, that in the former state, man is more dependent for his conservation upon his senses, than upon his understanding; and that they are consequently rendered more acute by his necessities, and by the habitual exercise of this function in ways which pass unheeded in society.

The perception of smell is in a great measure voluntary; and when assailed by any odour which is noxious and disagreeable, we instinctively hold in the breath, and even close the nostrils, in order to prevent the possibility of its access: while, on the other hand, we expand the nostrils, and greedily inhale every particle of air we can, when it is presented to us with agreeable properties. As it is voluntary, so is it susceptible of education; and it possesses some peculiarities which are well worthy the attention of the parent, both by way of caution and of improvement.

It is, in the first place, capable of considerable association: it informs us of the first harbingers of spring, and is regaled and delighted by the perfume of the primrose and the violet: it acquaints us with the return of autumn, and is disagreeably affected by the emanations of decaying leaves and vegetables; and warns us not to linger on the banks of marshes, and other situa